Songs of Fate
by NekoYOkami
Summary: The War for Cybertron rages on, and more sparks are brought into the conflict as time goes. Two sparkling's fate and lives change as an old hatred is renewed, with only each other to trust, and only adventures can reveal the future. Rated for safety; Warnings Inside!
1. The Dragonborn Comes

Author's Notes:

Ookami: So, this is our first attempt at writing for NaNoWriMo. Hasn't worked out as well as we had hoped...

Neko: Yeah we got to about 6000 words... but on the bright side new story!

Ookami: And we may get 10000 in the end, but figured we would start getting what we have out now. So, this is more of a prologue, but the entire story will have a dedicated song to each chapter.

Neko: The songs are more of an accompaniment than actually having the words in the story like a song fic.

Ookami: We obviously don't own anything Transformers or the music that inspire us in creating this story.

Sunny(the fairy): And this story was inspired by the Fanfic Virtual by heartlessangel124. So go check that out and maybe even try and find how this came from that.

Neko: though to be fair this is technically based off of a RP that we were doing based off of virtual, and we were like oh what if it wasn't virtual reality... and that's how we got this, a version of the original RP may one day be posted.

Warning: Sparkling experimentation and abuse mentioned, though not detailed in the events.

 **Song: The Dragonborn Comes**

~Two Sets, one Natural one Unnatural, of Day and Night or Fight and Flight, brought together in order to fight.~

Wind Rider POV

I woke with my helm hurting and wings saying nothing was similar. Not knowing how I could be somewhere wrong, I onlined my optics and tried to make sense of the room that I was in.

The room was dark, barely enough to see around without using my night sight, not that there was much to see in the room itself. There was only the berth I laid on to speak of, with a small divot in the wall that may work as a shelf, the white of the walls seemingly splattered with something blue. Looking at a small mound of blue in the nearest corner had me yelp softly. The blue was Energon, like the time the older younglings got too rough and needed medics, and the mound was the fuel crystallizing as the liquid left it. The far wall was open except for the metal bars that made it impossible to move onto the other side. There was a quiet figure that stayed there, their frame illuminated by the brighter lights the hall gave only to the mech. No, mechs would of responded to my yelp, but drones were not in the city most often. There was no sign of a window to the outside world, so I could not be sure of the time. The internal clock was supposed to be added later my creators said.

Speaking of my creators, why did they leave me in an open room that had been left unclean? I know my carrier would have glitched if they saw where I was. Knowing many drones have vocalizers installed, I asked: "Where are my creators drone?" It didn't move, making me believe I didn't say it right. Carrier said it was something about how you said it that made them listen. Before I could try to ask again, however, the drone moved away from the bars and across what I had to guess was a hall so the one with heavy ped steps could look in. What appeared from the corner had my vents freeze in fear.

A single red optic peered into the room from a deep purple frame that was bigger than any I had ever seen. He had crouched a little in order to look through the opening, revealing emotionless faceplates and a distant stare that seemed not to see anything living in front of him. His frame, however, seemed like it was rebuilt many times and created simply to make others obsolete in his presence. The optic seemed to zero in on mine, and I realized he only wished harm upon other mechs, explaining the drone for a fraction of a second before the terrifying being began to speak.

"Subject 293 is online, frame is stable and functioning properly. Requirements for initial testing are met, commencing initial test for Experiment 190 with Subject 188." The mech caused the bars to disappear into the ceiling as he spoke, taking me off the berth with the last words.

The statement did not answer my questions, so I asked in a trembling voice, "My designation is Wind Rider, do you know where my creators are?" For a couple of minutes, the giant mech didn't answer, moving through what must have been a labyrinth thing that trapped mechs, causing me to worry more that the mech was actually a drone in disguise. Moving to change levels, he finally responded without looking down.

"Subject 293 is to respond to Subject 293 unless informed otherwise. Subject 293 creators do not reside near our current location, nor will appear here. All Subjects belong to me, and will reside where I dictate unless disposed or relocated." Arriving at the desired level, the fearsome mech continued his steady gait as my processor's fans jerked on as I tried to process what was said.

Subject 293 was what he wanted to call me, but that will be confusing if there was another "Subject" he was taking me too. My creators were not here, and would never be here if he was right. They wouldn't leave me with such a scary mech on purpose, so I had not been allowed to be with him first. That meant this was wrong, but he was too strong and big to hit at. He also said that the "Subjects" belong to him, so did he really not see me as a femme? That was wrong too. He also said that the "Subjects" could be disposed of, but that only happened to broken toys at home. The fact that a big mech would treat a sparkling like a broken toy scared me more, but I didn't dwell on it long, I still was trying to see if there was another way the words could be taken. Too soon in my mind, it seemed that we appeared where he wanted to be.

Like most of the labyrinth of a building we had passed, the room we entered was white based, but that was where the similarities ended. The walls and some parts of the ceiling had paint transferred onto the white, while more energon covered the lower sections of the wall and dominated the extra color on the ground. The berth was a singular slab that looked more like it was for working on welds than recharging, covered with similar paint and energon coloring, though the extra colors mostly were drowned out by the energon blue. The room was cleaner than the last one though, and effort seemed to have been somewhat placed on the area. In the corner farthest from the moving bars as possible was a near-colorless sparkling that looked near my age and height curled defensively. The only colors on their frame were energon blue and flecks of a bright pink that seemed to have peeled over time. It took a lot to cause that on a frame I thought though.

The frame in the corner seemed to grow smaller as it looked at the mech and me without any sign of emotion either as the bars flew up into the ceiling just to crash down as soon as the mech had tossed me inside. "Subject 188 is to interact with Subject 293 for Experiment 190. This will occur for 3 hours. Begin." The giant mech left the area, though the other sparkling seemed to wait until the ped steps faded before moving towards me. For a moment I feared it would stay emotionless as it moved closer, as everything had been so far.

"Hi, I'm 188... or rather that's what He calls me, you're 293 right?" the sparkling said with a broken but kind smile.

Hope flared that the sparkling was more like me than it seemed at first. "Yeah, but I like the designation Wind Rider better, the idea of him saying so many numbers when there is more than one seems silly. The string he said before he left was long as it was."

"I'm guessing I'm the first one you've met, other than Him of course, don't worry he doesn't come back till 2 hours and 57 minutes have passed. So were you abandoned by your caretakers or Orphaned or Taken? Or maybe something entirely different, but those are the only ones I've seen." 188 sat down near me.

"I think taken? I don't remember how I could be here, but my creators would not let me stay with a scary mech on my own..." I faltered near the end, trying not to cry now. The younglings said I cried more than I needed to back home, though I may not see them again.

188 made comforting movements " It's ok to cry, I do it a lot, and the new subjects always do, this is a lot to process. I could tell you a bit about what I remember before I came here if that would make you feel better, but I don't remember much... I've been here a long time."

Shaking a little from the emotions and feeling almost safe with 188, I started to cry while trying to lean against the other. "Creators are going to be worried now... I don't know how far from Vos I am now... No wind either to help..." Stilling to try and get my vents back in order, I quietly asked, "Why did you end up with Him? You look like a Vos sparkling too."

188's vents kicked up for a second before she spoke. " I was from Vos, both of my creators were too... my Carrier gave me to Him... She no longer wanted me and my other caretaker had already left... The only thing I remember her saying to him was that he could have me as long as I could never be traced back to her..." 188's optics started tearing up. "...But that was a long time ago..."

I gave her a soft hug, hardly touching if I could see her wincing from too much pressure. "Sorry that she seemed not to care..." My system decided to hitch from the tears still falling, but tried to sound less teary. "How long is long? If you know... This place can make time still and grown mechs lost if it really is a labyrinth..."

188 leans into the hug attempting to get closer without too much pain."I know he gives the numbers in order, I know I have few memories of outside, I know I've almost forgotten my original designation, and I know he normally gets one subject at a time and doesn't get us too often but I don't know how long I've been here."

Knowing she wasn't going to move away at least, I let my arms barely touch her frame. "So, there has been over a hundred subjects between us... That must be a long time then." Shifting a little to look around the room to see the multitude of colors, I ask, "What was your original designation? If I use it when talking, maybe we both can remember longer."

188 shifted slightly as if the question caused pain."... Night Aria... but please not while He is near, he doesn't like that and He punishes it... it took me a while to learn that if you listen to him, respond to his designation for you it hurts less, he still hurts you but no additional pain."

Optics narrowing at the wall, a small smile still found its way to my face. "Well, Night Aria, it works out that He seems to not mind us talking amongst ourselves for now. Could you tell me how you remembered your number? I am sure I will get confused if he talks like he did earlier. No flight ability yet makes processing numbers harder creators said."

Night Aria giggled. " It takes some getting used to, but normally you're by yourself and so you know he's either saying the experiments number or your designation, you just kinda learn it... I think you're the first subject that I'm going to actually miss, and not just cause you are a pretty green color." Night Aria leaned more into me.

That caught my attention more than the worry of how much I was most likely going to get hurt. "Well, I know that I look nice in this color, but why would you miss me? I doubt this place really is as quiet as it sounds, right? All the Subjects between us are just not close, there is enough space here for that."

Night Aria moved away so she could look into my optics. " Besides Experiment 190 I've never seen another Subject, well at least not another alive... Sometimes, you can see them offline in a "room" but more often you see a drone going to dispose of the frame, and even that's rare. And after this experiment, we most likely will not ever have a chance to speak again."

I stared in her grey-blue optics for a long minute, wishing I could see the joking mischief that the younglings would get with a lie or the shifty nature when there is guilt of hiding something in the statement, but there was neither. "He actually gets rid of mechs like if they were just silly old toys that didn't hold together?" My vents shuttered as I had to remind myself to vent, fear making my processor fritz lightly. "He won't let you talk with anyone except for that experiment? I thought... I thought we needed to talk to be able to stay sane."

Night Aria gave me a sad smile. " Yes, bots normally do, and He doesn't make much for conversation, that's how a lot of the other subjects go apparently, they can't stand the isolation and loneliness. He likes me I think, or as much as he can like something other than causing pain and logic... this experiment is almost always done with me, it's never succeeded, I don't know what he does if it does, but this experiment is how I manage to stay as stable as I am. Well, this and my ability."

My processor was slightly fritzing at the fear and the realization at how alone the Subjects end up here, but I couldn't let myself stay distracted for long, time was not readily visible here and wasn't sure how long we still had now. I lightly touched my overheating helm onto hers, saying "Well isn't He some kind of mean, making you be able to interact with others and then take them away. It makes me scared of how your ability is the only other thing that keeps you-you, but maybe whatever it is will let you remember me a little more at least Night Aria. That way you remember your designation easier since I won't call you anything else." Removing my helm from hers, I smiled a little and flicked my wings in a hopeful sorrow. If there was a chance I wouldn't see her again, I had to make it count now.

Night Aria smiled and started tearing up. "I really like you, I'll try my hardest to not forget you, maybe one day we will meet again, but for now we still have 1 hour and some dozen minutes. So let's give ourselves something to remember..."

Nearly tearing up in response, I nod and then start telling her about the things I enjoyed and the games many sparklings played at home, teaching her the things she would have known growing up in her home city. The entire time I called her by her proper designation and ensured she knew how to find her place if she ever had returned.

The time passed faster than I could of thought, and Night Aria suddenly froze "He's going to be back here soon... I don't want you to leave... I like you!" Aria started crying and hugged me tightly.

Hugging the battered form of the femme gently, I tried not to hurt her as I joined at in crying for the friendship that never could be if she was telling the truth. She cried out the sadness, fear, and frustrations of all that I had come to know of Night Aria and the fact that we would not see each other again. "I... I like you too Aria. I want to stay with you too."

That was when the pede-falls of the giant mech became apparent as the entrance into the room was soon covered by the frame of the mech in question. Feeling the ghostly pass of medical and other scans being performed on the two, I looked up warily at the single optic that appeared to encompass the entire faceplates. The scans stopped, and the door opened to allow Him in, "Experiment 190 complete, results are a success. The secondary phase will begin shortly. Subject 293, detach from Subject 188." Forcing myself not to cling tighter at the demand, I slowly let go of Aria and permit Him to lift me.

As the bars fell behind me for what felt like the last time, I heard a voice shout out " Wind Rider!" He stopped, turning so we both could look back into the colorful dreary room and small frame inside, "I... I don't know what's going to happen... But I Promise I won't forget you! I Promise!" With a slight growl that seem to come from the entire frame, He glared as the room suddenly lit up with electricity, causing Aria to yell before falling limp on the ground.

"Subject 293 is Subject 293, no other designations are permissible." With that small declaration, we continued to wherever the mech wanted to go, a whimper barely held back as I thought about how painful that must of been. Instead of thinking about what we left, I forced myself to try and feel prepared for what was to happen to me now.

~~~~Sometime Later~~~~

My frame was considering of stilling on me, I was sure since I never felt this level of pain in my life. In a way, the only thing I considered nice of Him to do was the constant scans that never seemed to stop, since those were probably the only things that kept the pain from turning into a sudden demise. These thoughts would sometimes get merged with ones of Night Aria and would make me wonder how she could handle the years that she had been here. He had brought me into a new experimenting room and had secured me to one of two berth-slabs before leaving. Forcing my helm to look at the screens I could in a vain attempt to know what was about to happen to me. Very little of it made sense, though it said something about artificial spark twins and some mech designated Shockwave at the top of each screen. Resigned to being surprised by the experiment, I let my frame relax once more. The door to the room opened again, and I dimly let one optic shine in the direction to see what had not been in here already. What He held was a winged frame, that could be none other than Night Aria, 188 in this miserable place that could be called the Pit.

Swiftly she was secured to a berth, my optics a lit brighter as we looked at each other with relief and fear at what couldn't of been a good situation. "Experiment 190, Phase 2 commencing now..."

He said more out loud to his actions, but I couldn't hear it over the sudden searing pain that ripped across my frame, while I vaguely felt my chest plates moving away. It felt like I was being torn apart and melted along the edges at the same time, noise and light and sensors all being overstimulated to the point of breaking while also craving to sense more. And suddenly there was more, and the levels of pain that came with it proved to be more than my processor could handle as it all turned to black.

I feel my frame feel like it had been melted right below the outer armor as I slowly wake from the forced shutdown, my optics slow in focusing on the shape in front of me that appeared to be on the same slab I was. It wasn't normal for that to happen, ever since getting here my recharge had been without anything or any bot to be near. When I could finally process the image in front of me, I nearly jumped in surprise and only was held down by the fact my frame still claimed to be incapable of doing so. Instead, I settled with a soft staticy shriek "Night Aria!"

She gave me a pained but excited smile. "Wind Rider! I'm so happy you're ok! That one hurt more than most of them do..."

"Yeah," I responded with static still lacing my words, "but we both survived it. I kinda wonder what the second phase did though since it needed both of us. Do you feel like the underside of your armor is melted too?"

"Technically the first needed us both too... but yeah it feels like it's melted... maybe missing a piece... I thought... I thought that you ended up as one of those frames that get carried through the halls... I was worried... I'm glad you are ok..."

Venting as hard as I dared with the pain, I responded, "Well, not as much of the pretty green anymore, but made it far enough to see ya again Aria. I kept on wondering if you ended up that way, and if not how you handled being here for as long as you had..."

Night Aria vents kicked up a second before she spoke "... Remember how I mentioned an ability I have... it allows me to turn off all pain receptors and emotions entirely until I see it's safe to have feeling and feelings again..."

Before I could respond to that, He entered the recovery room that he had placed us in, looking like someone had tried to steal his energon treat but had responded with slicing them with that laser scalpel of His. "Experiment 190 Phase 2 completed, results are proving positive. Subjects 188 and 293 are stable and the bond at proper levels. Final preparations required. Note that Subjects refuse to acknowledge Subject designations. To prevent constant punishments in the future that could lead to offlining, and the success in progressing to this stage of Experiment 190, Subjects will be redesignated. Subject 188 will respond to Lunar Cascade now. Subject 293 will respond to Zephyr Shift. Failure to comply will result in punishment for both Subjects.

End of Wind Rider, Subject 293, Zephyr Shift POV

~Two sets, one natural one not, day and night, aerodynamic and swift, forced to fight, let's see how the story into legend shifts.~


	2. New Divide

Author's Notes:

Ookami: Hey everyone! This is the second chapter, and things kinda take a detour from Shockwave's domain and jumps forward in time for the sake of getting to the good parts.

Neko: This was a fun chapter to write even if it is dwarfed by the prolog... How did that thing even get so big?

Ookami: Maybe because it was building the world for us at the same time?

Zephyr Shift: Nah, it was because we had too much fun having the first spotlight!

Lunar Cascade: No I actually agree with the Wolf here, it was mainly world building... and maybe a bit of us loving finally being written.

Ookami: Thank you Lunar Cascade. So this is going to be a more dark fic, as if the last chapter didn't indicate that, but there will be random points of sunshine.

Neko: Though do we really do any other kind of stories?

Ookami: No... But our shorter pieces can look otherwise. We don't own Linkin Park over here by the way, the band is awesome and will appear a few times more.

Neko: We don't own Transformers, any of the gens... though we do have some mashables and movie dvds...does that count? Either way Enjoy!

Ookami: We also don't own the idea of an "Iacon Welcoming Party" when it comes to these twins, that belongs to Shadowblade-Tara! Enjoyed her version in the story "This is Sabotage," and decided that every good prank has a backstory.

 **Song: New Divide**

Sunstreaker/ Sideswipe POV

Location: Iacon

Timeframe: after an attack on Iacon, after the fall of Praxus

"Iacon a beautiful city, even after the recent attack. Because of said attack more Autobot's have been moved to the city to try and protect it. Meaning that Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, the twins raised in the Pits, have off time in the city of Iacon. All Bot's beware."

Sunstreaker hit the arm of his twin, glaring at him for doing the out loud monologue of their trip into the city. It was one of the few times that we didn't have absolutely every bot looking at them was either suspicion or hatred, and now he is trying to draw attention to those two aspects to the forefront of the bystanders around them. Sideswipe laughs, "Come on I'm just messing around, Sunny."

As the crowd around them starts to give them more space Sunstreaker glared hard at his twin. "I thought I told you not to call me Sunny." Making their way through the street was a lot easier suddenly, not that either twin would mention it out loud.

"Ok- ok. I won't call you Sunny, Sunny." Dodging the swing with a laugh, the two made their way to several shops getting seemingly random objects from each and sub-spacing the objects. The two were planning one of their infamous pranks. The base had become tenser since the attack and we decided that we needed to get all the other bot's to laugh, though the mech or femme that got caught typically didn't appreciate the work put in. But hey that's just the price of art, well that and possible brig time with possible extra consequences.

The prank that they decided to do is one they had decided to call "An Iacon Welcoming Party." So far they decided they would be placing a bunch of hidden paint bombs and bolting a berth or three to the ceiling. Until they see how well the prank worked they couldn't know whether or not it needed to be altered. Getting the paint will be the more difficult part because of the quantity needed and not drawing attention to themselves. ^Sideswipe, we're gonna need to split up if we want no mech finding out about this plan of ours with the paint bombs.^

Sideswipe nodded briefly ^ I think you're right, Sunny. I'll hit up-town you hit downtown? I want to see if we can get enough colors and variety to be able to make multi-colored bombs, maybe even rainbow one.^

Sunstreaker rolled his optics at that ^As long as we don't waste too much, we still need to actually prank some poor spark in the end.^

Eventually, the two have all the supplies they need for the welcoming party prank, though now the next question is who to play it on. The twin bond became abuzz with debate while their outside appearance seemed to be simply appreciating the walk back to base.

^Ratchet's medbay is out of the question,^ Sunstreaker stated, ^Ratchet's in too bad of a mood, that attack filled his territory with too many frames, and well he doesn't have the nickname Ratchet the Hatchet for nothing.^

^Jazz is out too, you know on the fact that he's out on a mission, and he's not supposed to be back for a while.^ Sideswipe stated

^Same with Prowl. Not that he would have been a good idea in the first place this time around. Can't appreciate a good prank like this, let alone a string of them like we want.^

Eventually, after thinking for a few minutes Sideswipe proposes ^How about BumbleBee? Maybe we can even start a pranking war with him.^

The smirk was apparent in Sunstreaker's response as well as his faceplates, ^And he is less likely to be explosively angry immediately after. Sounds like a plan.^

Sideswipe smirked in response, and any bot who knew them would know to run. Instead, the world seemed to be going as normal as they went into action.

~~~~Sometime Later~~~~

We were retreating from Bumblebee's room, pleased with how far we got with the room before the warning signal they placed in the hall went off. We got several paint bombs hidden as well as a few tripwire pranks setup but didn't quite get to the berth. Could probably get that done some other time. As we got to our room, the doors opened up and nearly immediately all we could see was Sparkling Lavender purple as it launched at us.

Before Sunstreaker could go hunt down whoever was the one responsible we had company at our room being told that the first of the paint bombs had found their target, and had been sentenced for a few hours in the brig at least. At least the mini had admitted to placing paint bombs in our room in the process, apparently mad he didn't get the jump on us in the end. Soon we were escorted to the brig with Bumblebee, who was a near blinding Shimmering Neon Rainbow. We two were stuck in a room in the brig with Bumblebee stuck in a room just a few down from us. Bee was being smart, thought Sunstreaker, for not trying to talk to them about what he did to their paint.

Over the bond link, Sideswipe in a teasing tone stated ^Sparkly lavender is not your color, Sunny.^

Growling lightly before he gave into the urge to hit the wall he responded ^No, not at all. Sparkled anything is hideous on us, and now we have to wait till after the brig time to fix it.^

Sideswipe had the gall to laugh at this. The brig rung with the sound of clashing metal as Sunstreaker responded with a punch in the side. ^Sorry, just... lately I've been thinking back to the pits and well this is just so different, and you know just reminds me of why I like our pranks so much, someone gets upset but it takes minds off of the horrible reality that we live in.^

^You mean like when we used electromagnetism on all of Shockwave's tools to his workbench so he couldn't try and upgrade us? Or more like the time we successfully put Prowl's office on the ceiling exactly how he left it?^ was the grumpy response.

Sideswipe laughed again, ^Yeah exactly like that, Primus, we've been pranking for a long time, though back in the pits it never really felt like pranking more like tricks that allowed us to survive, and stay us and not just more of Shockwave's messed up Subjects.^

Sitting on the single berth in the cell, Sunstreaker asked ^What brought up this trip down memory lane anyway? We were younglings when they pulled us out of the pits. War's been going on for a while now as well.^

Sideswipe leaned against his purple sparkly brother and sighed. ^I honestly don't know I think it may be this city... I don't know... I saw sparklings and younglings playing in the streets when we first arrived and I guess it's been on my mind for a while.^

Sighing in return, ^I know we can't really say that we had a childhood Sides, but that is why we got into the war when it began. We know how to fight these cons since we saw them back then, and there was no way we were letting some young spark go that if we had a say in it.^

Sideswipe nodded ^Yeah I know, but I don't know it's just been bugging me for the last few days, but I didn't really want to bring it up you know...^

^Giving power to the demons of our past and whatnot, I know. But the fact of the matter is that Mega-glitch is giving Shockwave more power than our meager thoughts could ever possess, and we still need to fight off the creeps drones and inventions. Our past makes us the best front liners Prime has, and like Pit, we will lose because of it.^

Sideswipe chuckled at his brother's dramatic speech ^ Yeah yeah... Sunny^

Sunstreaker growled at his brother, though it was obvious that there was no fire behind it. ^How many times do I have to say not to call me Sunny brother?^

Sideswipe laughed off his brother's complaint knowing that Sunstreaker didn't really care as long as it was him and only him saying it, and instead brought up a different conversation, all about how to get revenge on Bumblebee in this newly reignited prank war.

Neko:... Primus those two can have adorable moments... not that any bot would really know it.

Ookami: Or we are making them OOC as well, but ah well. These two deserve some care from writers it seems sometimes. Anyway, we will have another drabble posted soon, though the summary won't be explained for a while longer.

Neko: and in the next chapter we go back to Zephyr Shift and Lunar Cacscade. So we will see y'all later bye!


	3. Nobody Can Save Me

**Song: Nobody can save me**

Lunar Cascade POV

My optics crack open at the sound of the alarms going off. Zephyr must have gotten out of her "room" again. I sit up ignoring the pain that comes from it, Shockwave must have had a drone put me on the birth after the last experiment. I can hear the drones searching the hall's for her, I hope I can at least see her first, I wish I could use this twin bond to call out to her but he has his stupid fields up that make all bonds feel like they don't exist. I want to call out to her, but if I had my vocalizer than I could get out myself, but I can see it past the bars of my room laying on a table with the part of my hands that allows my hands to move. That means that I can't use my fans that he turned my wings into, I look down at said fan-wings sad, I can't even feel them, the 8 blades don't even look like they could have ever been wings.

I decide to try and freeze the bars again, maybe Zephyr has messed this the electricity and it won't just melt immediately. I lay my hands on the bars and feel the bars heat up till I can almost see them turn orange.I can't touch them now not without pain, and my ice won't work on them anyways now. I feel so useless, and the alarms are still going off so I sit on the ground in front of the cooling bars. I remember Zephyr talking about the god Primus, and I decide to try praying to him, maybe he can help her get free, or maybe... maybe she can get to me, even though that is selfish... I want to see her.

Drones rush by the room, presumably getting a lead on Zephyr's location and movements before the area goes quieter again. It didn't stay like that for long as short but quick pede steps sound the arrival of a femme that I have known for many centuries now. Zephyr Shift soon appeared in front of the bars, looking like the last obstacle course had decided to chew on her frame a while before deciding that it didn't want to offline wings twitching erratically in a bit of pain, it didn't look like she could hold out in a fight for long. A small smile found its way to the surface of the femme before saying, "Finally I actually found you this time." I jumped up excited and backed away from the bars, she's never made it to my room before maybe, just maybe we can be free!

Zephyr looks around and finds the panel that controls the bars, and lays her hands on the control panel and zaps it with her electricity. As the bars open due to safety protocols I run over to Zephyr and hug her to the best of my abilities while trying not to aggravate her injuries. Zephyr gently grabbed my arms and brought the hands into her line of vision and said softly, "He took all three out again, didn't he?" Looking at the higher than them table with concern, she continued with "Think you can help me get up there? Don't think I can manage it right now." I nodded and got closer to the table in a position to help volt Zephyr up to the top of the table. Like we had practiced many times in Shockwaves tests she came running towards me and I

helped her launch into the air so she could grab the edge of the table and climb up to the table. From the top of the table was shuffling sounds as she grabbed the missing parts and the few tools that may help before jumping down as carefully as she could achieve. Placing the gathered materials on the ground, Zephyr motioned to sit as she got set up to attempt to put me back together. I sat down in front of Zephyr and closed my optics knowing that this was not going to be painless or pleasant in any sense of the word but, we need to do it and maybe just maybe it can help us moved as slow as she dared with the alarms still blaring, reminding us that time was indeed not on our side, in a false hope that it would make the overall amount of painless than it should be. I stupidly just remembered the ability that I have that has let me survive this place, and force it to engage. My optics open slightly and I know they have changed to a grey color meaning that my ability is working. I see her work in careful but quick fashion. Soon she's finished with the hands and moved on to the most delicate part, putting my vocalizer back in. As she finishes I let my feelings come back and gasp in the pain that my frame reminds me I'm in, and yet I smile. "Zephyr you did it!" I stop myself from tackling her for the sake of time and pain. We head in the direction that the drones came from hoping they were all that was down that way. Twists, turns, and identical looking hallways fly by as we run down the halls, it's a literal maze, we've managed to go down two floors but we don't know how far up we are, if we even are up what is we are below ground and we are just making it worse! "Why are there no windows in this place! Or maybe there are windows and we are below ground and so we have no windows... has our whole life been underground?" I ask Zephyr rhetorically all though if she were to have the answer I would love to know it.

Zephyr looked at me, I could see an emotion in her optics but not one I could identify there. "Maybe we have been underground for most of our lives, but maybe we have only been in the inner parts of a really, really big building...Still, should have been able to find an out at some point here... I should have at least." Zephyr rambled slightly while she was trying to figure out what part of the building we were at in the first place. Suddenly a rush of emotions comes, and I realize they aren't mine but Zephyr's the bond shield must have gone down, or at least it's not on right now for this part. However, the Joy and hope that sprang from that thought were quickly was dashed as Zephyr's emotions suddenly felt staticky as she stopped moving. He took down the shield... he's going to...

I feel my optics well up as suddenly I become a passenger in my own frame. He's controlling us as puppets, and we start to walk down a hall and most likely towards Him. I tried to see through my faded vision to try and figure out how far we were from something different, or maybe just a way to indicate the area was different before we would reach the place that he wanted us to be, but to no avail. Without proper control of our frames, there was little we could properly see. Unfortunately, we can still feel everything it's just slightly duller, and I can't use my ability like this... I know if he really wanted to he could talk to us, not that he could hear us as far as he's shown. I tend to think even more when like this because it at least slightly distracts me from what's going on, but I hate thinking so much. On the plus side even though it's painful and staticky I can still somewhat pick up on Zephyr's emotions, and that in and of itself is more than we normally can with the shields up.

Finally, we reach an opened room, that seems huge to the limited sight we both have at the moment, with the end of our vision ending in his huge frame. It stands unwavering, though his processor is split between three frames, his optic dimly looking out to where we now stood. As we regain control of our frames he becomes animated and the optic shines true as he says "Subjects Zephyr Shift, Lunar Cascade. The rules of trying to escape, of fixing oneself or each other, and of harming property have been broken. However, there is limited time for recovery from punishment, therefore cannot perform normal punishments. Another method has been arranged."

Author's notes:

Ookami: Okay, so we have a less than pleased Shockwave, but that's fine. Being evil is what we do sometimes.

Neko: (muttering) I hate Shockwave...I hate Shockwave...I hate Shockwave...I hate Shockwave...

Ookami: It's alright Neko, he will be dealt with... Eventually... But for now, we need him to stay around.

Neko:... I know... Sigh oh well, it was definitely a fun chapter to do though!

Ookami: Yeah, now if only our schedules would behave more often... Ah well. If anyone has seen the drabbles they know what mess we may or may not be dealing with...

Neko: fair enough, still mad at you for summoning in a transformer into our base... but either way hope everyone had fun and enjoyed the chapter.

Ookami: Yeah, we will see you next time! Still, don't own anything! Have a good day!~


End file.
